Wartime mobilization of labour reduced export trade to a bare minimum. Many
capital investments overseas were sold or destroyed by the fortunes of war,
and on the high seas U-boat warfare robbed England of a large part of her
merchant fleet. To Britain's prime minister, Winston Churchill, the future of
his nation in the post-war period was of foremost concern. But in addition to
the task of rebuilding the many shattered homes of England, a graver problem
awaited the British--that of economic readjustment.